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DEMOCRATS IN CHARGE, BUT NOT THREATENING
[SOURCE: Multichannel News, AUTHOR: Ted Hearn]
If anything bad happens to the cable industry as a result of the Democratic takeover of Congress, it shouldn't happen very fast. because House and Senate Democrats have made the issues that drove voters to the polls their legislative agenda to start 2007, it’s highly unlikely that incoming House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) has plans to move telecommunications policy to the forefront of the new Congress. “I would just note that this election was not about telecom,” Stifel Nicolaus telecom analyst Blair Levin said. For the time being, Levin expects a benign environment for cable on such matters as franchise reform, network neutrality, and any mandate, to sell cable channels one at a time to viewers, known as a la carte pricing. “I don't believe that Congress is likely to pass a big, comprehensive bill,” Levin said. Jessica Zufolo, who tracks telecom policy at Medley Global Advisors, said telecom legislation won't be foremost on Democrats’ minds. “Telecom is not going to be a big focus in the next two years,” Zufolo said.
http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6390451.html?display=Top+Stories

THE VIRAL VOTE
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: Editorial Staff]
[Commentary] 2006 may be remembered as the first "viral-vedio" election. In the two closest races, lost by former broadcaster Sen. Conrad Burns of Montana and Sen. George Allen of Virginia, the margin of defeat was only a relative handful of votes. And in each, damaging videos seen on the Web and then given mainstream exposure on television helped change the results. The videos were produced by a new breed of campaign operative: ones armed with digital video cameras and a mandate to shadow the opposition and keep rolling in case there is any video to be used against them. The candidates provided ample fodder for local newscasts and social-networking sites. There was Burns nodding off at a hearing; the “naptime” video alone attracted more than 100,000 views. Then there was his comment comparing taxi drivers to terrorists and condescending remarks about his Guatemalan-born yard man. Burns lost by 2,644 votes, which means that only 1,323 people were the difference between Republicans holding onto control of the Senate and losing it. Likewise, in Virginia, the reigning political wisdom says the deciding factor in George Allen's race was his “macaca” comment captured by a college kid—the person he was aiming the slur at—doing video stalking duty for Allen's opponent. Before we start writing obits for traditional media, broadcasting and cable news networks remained the place where candidates had to go to be seen and heard to get elected. That meant record campaign spending, much of it on TV advertising, much of it horribly negative. It also meant broadcasters' covering debates and giving up time to candidates. But it's clear from last week that the election landscape of the future is going to be a combination of the viral and the traditional, each fueling the other.
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6390446.html?display=Opinion

FOR DEMOCRATS, HOW LONG A HONEYMOON?
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Howard Kurtz]
[Commentary] The GOP lost control of Capitol Hill last week for a number of reasons, particularly the war (the televised pictures of growing casualties were hard to shake off) and the scandals involving Jack Abramoff, Tom DeLay, Duke Cunningham and Mark Foley (all of which were broken by news organizations). At times it seemed journalists and administration officials were offering two different versions of reality. But in the end the polls accurately forecast the thumping to come. Now the question is whether a press corps that has been openly at odds with the president will hold the newly empowered Democrats to the same tough standards. As with any new regime, Sen. Harry Reid and Rep. Nancy Pelosi are enjoying a media honeymoon for the moment -- especially Pelosi, because of her status as the first woman in line to become House speaker and her grandmother-of-five persona. That may not last long. But where will journalists set the performance bar? If the Democrats don't pass much legislation, or if they craft bills that Bush vetoes, will the press blame them for gridlock? If they start rejecting one Bush nominee after another, will the press say they are obstructionist? If, after railing against Republican corruption, they pass only cosmetic ethics reform, will the press say they were all talk and no action? When Democratic committee chairmen issue subpoenas and conduct oversight hearings, will news accounts portray them as harassing the White House? Or will journalists recognize that aggressive congressional inquiries were a normal practice until the GOP Congress, which loved to investigate the Clinton White House, essentially stopped scrutinizing the Bush administration? And if Senate Republicans who denounced Democratic filibusters start trying to talk things to death, will journalists call them on the double standard?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/12/AR200611...
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TELEMUNDO TO CONSOLIDATE SOME LOCAL NEWS
[SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: Meg James]
Local newscasts on some of the Telemundo Spanish-language television stations will soon be a lot less local. As part of a companywide, $750-million restructuring by parent NBC Universal, Telemundo TV stations in markets including San Jose, Las Vegas, Phoenix, Dallas and Houston will no longer produce their own newscasts. Instead, beginning early next year, local news for seven Telemundo stations will originate near Fort Worth. There, anchors and editors will produce three live regionalized newscasts using feeds from reporters and camera operators in the field. Telemundo's restructuring will eliminate about 110 jobs, primarily at the local stations. However, NBC executives said the company planned to hire 30 people to work at the Fort Worth production facility. That means the net job loss will be about 90 positions — or about 5% — of Telemundo's total workforce. The reductions reflect a trend by media companies to cut newsroom jobs in an effort to boost corporate profit and satisfy shareholders. In recent years, revenue at traditional media outlets has declined as more advertisers have embraced the Internet to reach younger viewers. But centralizing the news operation has drawn a rebuke of NBC Universal from the National Assn. of Hispanic Journalists, which is considering challenging upcoming Telemundo station license renewals.
http://www.latimes.com/business/printedition/la-fi-telemundo13nov13,1,12...
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